Bush Fiddled . . . . Following his guitar-strumming, cake-eating, John McCain birthday partying while hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast and killed and displaced so many Americans in "that part of the world," Bush's many and varied handlers have ensured that his response to California's wildfire victims would not be nearly as callous or negligent in comparison.

So don't expect any comments about how no one could've anticipated (despite repeated warnings and briefings) the breech of the levies, or how the newly-homeless are better off in their shelters than they were in their own homes, or warnings against victims reporting false insurance claims of missing "million dollar necklaces," or false promises about rebuilding and jobs programs and repaired infrastructure.

No, there'll be none of that. Besides, there are actual, real rich people living in the San Diego area. Many of them Republicans, too!

Instead, the Bush Crime Family consigliores cancelled Raisin Brain's plans to visit St. Louis Thursday - releasing Darth Cheney in his stead - and scheduled a much-publicized in-person visit to declare to the world (and voting Republicans) that THE DECIDER is in charge and in da house! Harumph.

Speaking of devastated New Orleans, back in the Senate the Democrats continue to prove their irrelevance by confirming one of Bush's most conservative judicial nominees - Mississippi Judge Leslie Southwick - to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

parents and teachers who love to teach hate school, so I brace myself for their unwinding upon their return in the afternoon. I swear if we didn't provide reading materials here, encourage them to watch documentaries, and discuss topics here that are never brought up in school...I shudder to think!

We're doing well, I'm just pissed at my neighbors and one of their dogs right now. This dog frequently comes over here to get after the cats (now cat) and his 'parents' know that he's not supposed to be running loose, but enough is enough. He came over into our yard earlier and chased HAC up onto the porch and then he growled at me for yelling at him and telling him to go home. I've never owned a dog who thought that it was okay to growl at me or neighbors, or people the dog was familiar with, but I never allowed mine to run loose because I never wanted anyone to get irritated enough at any dog that I owned to be tempted to hurt it.

This isn't the first time that he's growled at me in my yard, and he was on my front porch growling at me once. Needless to say, I had a shit fit and he decided that he needed to go home. I just don't like getting irked at animals because their owners don't supervise them!

103. If you can find it, read the short story "The Marching Morons" by Kornbluth

From the '50s, I think. A guy awakes from suspended animation into a world far in the future where the average IQ has declined to 25. There are just a few of the intelligentsia left to keep the basic systems around so the idiots don't totally self-destruct.

We brought him home at 2am and Mr. c spent the next two hours digging a grave in the garden where he could be seen from their favorite TV chair. The clinic had put Oreo and his little leopard-print plush bed in a burial container for us, and we said goodbye at 4 in the morning. Mr. c is inconsolable.

I went to a job interview at 2pm looking like I'd been on a 3-day bender.

But we have our other little mouths to feed and take comfort in them. We're just telling ourselves that little Mr. O had the best possible life we could have given him. Someday another little 6-week-old homeless kitty will show up and we'll have a space open for him.

oh this has been a terrible year for the pets in the truthseeker family, they are all together though, Smokey's Cosmo, Ralps Norm are meowing and singing praises to Oreo right now, and comparing owners. They will always live on in our hearts.

Doesn't it make you wonder what kind of crap is in our air and water that metabolizes faster in their little systems? Since 1993 I've lost cats to diabetes, injection-site skin cancer, and pancreatitis and all of them were indoor cats aged 10 or under. And I have a 9-year-old with seizures. Kept healthy and indoors, I thought I could reasonable expect them to be around 16-20 years.

Oh well, I'd love them unconditionally no matter how long they live. (I forgot to mention Mini-Me, whom I took in at the age of 1 day and only lived 4 weeks. But what a little trooper.)

Sometimes we'd carry him outdoors to familiarize himself with the area around the house in case he ever somehow ran out. But he was always in our arms and cried until we took him inside.

When I was a kid, our cats all ran around outdoors and got distemper and were hit by cars. We didn't know any better. We thought cats needed to indulge their hunting instincts and would get too fat left indoors.

We meant well, but cats didn't live all that long then. Now they're supposed to!

Maybe a week ago we noticed he wasn't sleeping in his customary position at the foot of my side of the bed. Alarm bells went off when we'd find him hiding under a desk or a bed or a sofa all the time, and acting lethargic. This is what Sam, my injection-site-skin-cancer victim did before she showed obvious symptoms.

The vet ran blood/urine tests Monday and called us before 8 Tuesday telling us to get O to a 24-hour emergency clinic immediately, since he was critical and would need constant monitoring. We got him there within the hour, and they did not sound optimistic. They had us call every 4 hours for updates. His counts were bad. At midnight they called us to say he had seemed to be a little more responsive, and then seized. They thought it was a stroke. He was still warm when we got there to say goodbye.

The vets said this happens and happens fast. And that pancreatitis and liver failure are basically untreatable in cats.

Sigh. They do nothing but bring joy into our lives, and we can do so little for them when it counts.

My gus went really fast like that from liver failure. He was 3. He was sort of a Siamese who was inner-bred too many times and his immune system was shot. It's just such a damn shock. One day they seem OK and the next they are gone.

95. This sounds something like what happened to Cosmo. He'd gone so long

without eating that his liver began to fail, I think the vet called it hepatic lipidosis. He was really jaundiced. You did everything you and Mr. c did everything you could do for Oreo and he was lucky to have you.

I'm still adjusting to my Nosy being gone. Jeeze I had hoped that Oreo would improve. Big for you and Mr. c! I'm certain that Oreo had a great life with you. Anyone who would take a big bullfrog to a safe place would be good to four-legged, furry friends, too.

Skid's doing well. Screech's calcium level was still high in the second blood test, so he's going in for an X-ray on Friday. He'll probably have an ultrasound one day next week. Big s to all Lulu, Sesame, Raisin and the rest of the gang!!

Nice to be here. Yes, he was quite good with him - very patient. Mike seems to know plain self-induced or willful ignorance and the product of misinformation when he sees it - Ryan seems to fall into the latter category. I also take back my "loon" comment. Hopefully young Ryan will take Mike's suggestion up and see that no, it's NOT OK to keep going the way we are going.

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